Good Against Remotes

Good Against Remotes – "Answer Me These Questions Three"
by Art Basler

Hello! Welcome to the first edition of Good Against Remotes. I have a heavy background in CCG/TCGs, but I also love the LCG model. I have played Lord of the Rings, Android Netrunner, and Star Wars heavily for the last year. This article series will run the middle ground between competitive decks and what’s next. I am OK with stock lists, but I like to push the creative bounds. Let’s start with some basic game theory and then apply it to Sith control. SWLCG is a great example of the classic game conundrums:

Who’s the beat down?
Questions and answers…

Light Side is clearly the aggressor in the opening 3-4 turns. Dark Side, although faster than LS decks, cannot usually win through early objective destruction. The LS player must win early. This may seem elementary to any player of the game, however the statement leads to a more important issue: questions and answers. The DS player, is always the defender on turn one, and must anticipate what questions the LS player will pose, and provide the correct answers. The LS player’s turn one and following is always: “What can you do to stop me?” Other than Trench Run there are no alternate wins conditions for LS players to actively build into their decks, at least for now; they must destroy three objectives. The LS player has to pose three questions, e.g.: destroy three objectives, for which the DS player will not be able to answer, or Light side to Dark side: Answer me these questions three.

The most popular questions (in the form of units/deck ideas) asked by LS players are:

• Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Millennium Falcon, Chewbacca
• Blockade Runner, Home 1, Red 5, Sleuth Scout
• Snowspeeders
• Jedi Voltron

Sith players have two major categories of questions they must ask:
Can you deal with non/vehicle units?
Can you deal with protect?

Sith is much better at dealing with character units. I think that LS vehicle decks will continue to gain popularity the longer Sith control remains a powerhouse.

Examining each DS pod as an answer and a deck as a combination of answers helps explain why the Sith core has been dominant since the game arrived a year ago; surprisingly, the Fall of the Jedi and The Emperor’s Web lack Twist of Fate. How are they dominant then, other than Vader and Sir Palpatine? Of the twenty cards in these two pods, eight are units, eight are unit removal cards, two bank cards (Sith Library), and Vader’s Lightsaber which functions as more spot removal. The objective cards themselves are resource poor and Emperor’s Web only has four hit points. The usual complement to this duo is Counsel of the Sith, which adds much needed Twist of Fates, four smaller units (great against Blockade Runner and Sleuth Scouts), great card draw and two more bank cards. The objective effect is fantastic for the Sith deck as it seeks to control edge battles. How do all of these pods operate as correct answers? The key is Light Sides dependence on units. There are no other ways to win outside of dealing damage through units/event cards (I’ve never seen DS lose to decking out in a year of play).

The biggest weakness in these six pods is their resource base. The deck core at this point will struggle to get to five or six resources reliably. This is often OK as Vader and Palpatine can decimate edge battles as well with their four and five pips. This six pod core is where I wish to jump off from. What does this deck need in order to succeed from here? Many GenCon players looked to pod #26: Imperial Command. At first glance, the pod seems to shine due mostly to Admiral Motti (Duty Officers are excellent as well). This is a fair assessment, yet the real stars here are the Heavy Stormtrooper Squads. Admiral “Chokes” Motti is amazing and does a ton of work for the Sith control player. The objective itself provides two resources and is always a welcome sight. The key to DS decks post EoD is the number of two cost or less units with unit damage/tactic icons. In the last month of play, I have begun to look for DS pods that have an abundance of two drop units with unit damage.
What answers can we search for from the rest of the DS pods? I prefer:

• Pods with at least two resource generation
• Pods with Twist of Fate
• Pods with two or less cost units that have unit/tactic damage

If we factor all those we find the following pods which have at least high resource generation:

Navy:
Imperial Command (26-1) (See above)
Unstoppable Advance (63-1)
Death and Despayre (29-1)

Sith:
Shadows of Dathomir (25-1)
The Heart of the Empire (22-1)

Scum:
Lucrative Contract (57-1)
Feeding the Pit (86-1)
Trandoshan Terror (85-1)

Neutral:
Shadows on the Ice (42-1)
Asteroid Pursuit (90-1)

If we assume our core build is:

2x Fall of the Jedi
2x Counsel of the Sith
2x The Emperor’s Web

What combinations can we come up with? Let’s look at splashing from each of the factions.

Navy:
“Big Red Bus”
2x Imperial Command
2x Death and Despayre

This is the classic build that saw play at Regional events last fall. The deck has plenty of smaller units and blast damage to sweep up the late game. The deck doesn’t have as many Twist of Fates as other deck lists we have seen.

The DS list that Matt Kohls piloted to a win at GenCon:

Dark Side (Navy): 19,19,20,20,23,23,26,30,30,36

Mr. Kohls ran Defense Protocol (30-1), which was a pod I had passed up in recent months. It has Twist of Fate, an amazing objective reaction, and combined with Reconnaissance Mission, provides a ton of edge battle cards (9 total). What about straight Sith builds?

Sith:
“Back to Red”
2x Vader’s Fist
2x Imperial Command

Vader’s Fist has been impressive in testing; I am pretty sure it would have seen play at GenCon had it been legal to sleeve up. The objective effect cuts LS player’s ability to cycle out cards turn one and the effect stacks. LS has its chance to win severely diminished by not being able to draw six cards a turn and The Fist is pretty demoralizing. Next we move on to Scum, which has fantastic pods.

Scum:
2x The Tatooine Crash
2x Lucrative Contract

Adding these four pods brings four Twists of Fate, great resource production, enhancement removal, damage prevention with Corrupted Official, and the always great Jawa Scavengers.

2x Trandoshan Terror
2x Lucrative Contract

This build gives you much better chances of reaching five and six resources on turn one. Trandoshan Terror is a great pod that deals with both vehicle and character decks.

My last list here drops Counsel of the Sith entirely in favor of more resources and a much better defensive package.

Scum and Villainy:
2x Council of the Sith (20-1)
2x Emperor’s Web (23-1)
2x Fall of the Jedi (19-1)
2x Trandoshan Terror (85-1)
2x Lucrative Contract (57-1)

This build has a great resource base, eight edge battle cards, and 16 units that cost 2 or less.

Thanks for reading, and good luck against the living.